Oct. 26 – New Mexico United’s margin of error officially expired on Saturday night.

United narrowly missed a final chance to build momentum for the postseason, closing the regular season with a 3–2 loss to Memphis 901 FC at Isotopes Park.

Greg Hurst and Marlon Vargas scored goals for United, but a pair of agonizing close calls in the closing minutes failed to produce a draw in the regular season finale for either team. New Mexico outscored Memphis 15-5 (5-3 in shots on goal) and had 64% of the ball, but came away frustrated – as did a lively crowd of 10,220.

“It’s extremely disappointing to concede three goals at home in front of such a crowd,” said United coach Eric Quill. “I take full responsibility for the result. Mistakes were made tonight that simply cannot be made, simple as that.”

It was an unfortunate end to an impressive season for New Mexico, which finished first in the USL Championship’s Western Conference and will host No. 8 seed Phoenix Rising FC in the first round of the playoffs on Nov. 3. Phoenix was locked in eighth place after a 4-1 loss to Louisville City on Saturday.

But United will enter the postseason mired in the first real extended funk of the season. NMU went 0-3-2 in its last five games, and Quill didn’t mince words about his team’s uninspired finish.

“We are in first place, but we are not a first place team right now,” he said. “We have to make some tough decisions this week about what kind of lineup we’ll have to start the play-offs. If we play like the first 65 minutes tonight, we’ll be one and done.”

Memphis, playing with a home game on the line on Saturday, did better by taking advantage of fewer opportunities. The visitors won the two-game series against NMU after falling to a 2-1 decision in Memphis earlier this season.

United almost rallied from a 3-1 hole on Saturday, scoring Vargas’ first NMU goal in stoppage time to open a one-goal deficit. Avionne Flanagan shot over the crossbar moments later and Kalen Ryden headed a hard shot just over the crossbar in the final seconds.

“Obviously our first half was a bit sloppy and we couldn’t capitalize on our chances,” Vargas said. “But I felt like we really picked it up late in the second half. That’s something we can definitely build on next week.”

Things could hardly have started worse for the home team, who fell behind less than two minutes into the match. Memphis’ Bruno Lapa got open on a cross to the right wing and centered the ball to teammate Jon Bakero for a relatively easy one-timer in the net.

It remained 1-0 until the 20th minute, also known as the Magic Minute during United’s home games. Just as the crowd started to get loud, NMU’s Will Seymore centered a ball from near the right baseline, where it found Hurst’s feet for a redirected goal.

Hurst’s twelfth goal of the season leveled the score, but it wouldn’t stay that way for long. In the 25th minute, Lapa sent a pass forward that Samuel Careaga collected on the run. Careaga capped a long run by rolling a shot that United goalkeeper Alex Tambakis got a hand on but couldn’t stop.

United, as has often been the case recently, went into half-time trailing despite having a significant advantage in possession (59%). Despite this, NMU had just two shots in the first 45 minutes, only one of which was on target.

“Such statistics can be misleading,” Quill said. “We didn’t get to the time when we needed to.”

United had a golden opportunity to level early in the second half, centering a ball to Nicky Hernandez for an open look at the top of the box. But Hernandez’s soft shot went straight into the arms of goalkeeper Tyler Deric, who made numerous stops but was not tested often.

Memphis almost put the win away in the 64th minute when defender Lucas Turci fired a low shot from about 30 yards out that found the right corner of the goal and made it 3–1. It was Turci’s third goal of the season, two of which came against United.